Well I watched HBO's latest "dramatic" series with some interest. I watched the first episode last night on rebroadcast and I must say I'm both disappointed and confused. First, too many kingdoms, too many characters too many story lines thrown at you for you to do any but say WTF for the first hour. This is obviously a series where it behooves you to read the books first. But I've not read fantasy since I finished the Ring Trilogy for the 5 time some years ago. Casting is all English and seems adequate. The men are all buff save for a couple of exceptions and the women are all stunningly beautifull and usually nekid. The whole thing is like "Spartacus Blood and Sand" meets "Lord of the Rings" with the latter getting all the blood and sex from the former.

I personally don't see it making it unless the find a way to bring people into the mythos more easily. A 15 minute primer on the realms and alliances of this mythical land would've been helpfull. During the behind the scenes on the making of this series they show the author several times. And after looking at this fat, hairy, little troll I can tell why there's so much sex and violence in the show as that's usually what springs from the minds of man/boys still living in Mom's basement. What a mess.

Worf